


and kindles the great

by blastellanos



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Girlfriends/No Wives, M/M, anyways i miss iggy, fight me al avila, i'M SAD, so some people cope by writing dumb fluff!, there's a cow, this is the worst news
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 21:23:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16183460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blastellanos/pseuds/blastellanos
Summary: “ Absence is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and kindles the great.”– Roger de Bussy-Rabutin





	and kindles the great

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saddestboner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saddestboner/gifts).



> TURN ON YOUR LOCATION, AL.

**just got a text from al. won't be back.**

*

James scours the rumors, wondering where José will wind up. An obsession, would they be rivals? Would they see each other at all? 

He doesn't reply because replying makes it real, and it has to be some kind of joke. It has to be some cruel dream. 

James thinks about how if he pinches himself hard enough he'll wake up. He'll have his arms around José's lithe body and his nose in his citrus-scented soft hair and everything will be fine. 

It'll be opening day in Chicago again, the season will be brand new, it won't feel like his body and his heart are breaking at the same time. 

*

 **José Iglesias, San Diego Padres Agree to 1 Year, $5.25 Million Deal**

*

James doesn't like to be weak. He doesn't like to need people. That's why this whole thing was a bad idea. He knew people got traded, people left, friendships ended and bonds were torn apart without notice or tenderness. 

He'd promised himself when he made it to the majors he wouldn't make that mistake. 

José wasn't a mistake but falling in love with him was. _Needing_ him was. James doesn't know how to begin, to pick up the pieces.

*

He still hasn't replied to José. 

*

 **who tf is even gonna be on the team this year?**

Nick's message does little to make James laugh. 

_i'm gonna miss iggy._

**stop being such a mope-y gay.**

_:/_

**you could go see him in miami? his ranch address is public???**

It's a bad idea.

*

James stands in front of Miami International airport and looks down at his phone to order an Uber. His heart is pounding and he doesn't know why.

What if José didn't want to see him? What if this neediness is only in his own heart and José is glad for the distance, the disentangling. 

James goes through scenarios in his head. If José slams the door in his face. If he tells him he's sorry but-- 

James remembers José gasping that he loved him against his throat, pinned down, until James's fingers left bruises over his hip bones. 

If he hadn't meant it-- what then? 

Where did they go from there? 

The ride is long and James wants nothing more than for time to speed up, or for time to stop. 

_is it a bad time to come see ya?_

**:D never**

James wonders what he can read into that smiling face. 

*  
It's dusk when he pulls up in front of the wide wooden gates and there's a cow lowing in the field, near to the fence, it's big nose nudging at perfectly stained wood. 

He shoulders his duffel bag and tips his driver and wonders if he can just walk in. The gate is locked, but that's probably for the cows and he throws his duffel bag over and scales the posts, dropping with a soft thud. 

There's no one around, but he sees there are lights on in the ranch house and the door is thrown open. Iggy still moves fast and it's not long before he has his hands full of an excited shortstop, arms around his shoulders and mouth against his jawline. 

" _El Capítan_." José says cheerfully, muffled against James's cheek, and his fingers dig into the flesh of James's shoulder. It's almost enough to let James breathe again. 

Instead, he pushes José down and then down further. 

He should go inside but the grass is cool and damp and it smells like the great outdoors and José's cologne is in his nose. His duffel bag lays forgotten as he spreads José out in front of him. 

"Iggy," He sighs out his name like a prayer and slides his hands up under José's shirt. Against warm and smooth skin, against the tightly coiled muscle there, "missed you." 

"Missed you too, Jimmy." José mumbles. James covers José's mouth with his own, digs his nails into his skin and hears and feels the noise he makes beneath him. José gives himself to James-- like always, like he needs. 

"You can't be gone." James bites a bruise at the hollow of José's throat, sucking there lightly as José squirms beneath him, wild-- desperate. 

"I'm here." 

José says it like a promise and maybe it's okay. 

James doesn't let him up, he slides his jeans down over his hips, slides his fingers into him, and listens to the sound of his cries echo in the night air. 

*

He spends the offseason with José, working on his ranch, and it almost feels like they're married; he has to report the day before and he packs up with a heavy, pained heart. 

José gives him a hug and kisses him in the center of his chest. 

"I'm here."

It's going to be okay.


End file.
